Was I really called to go all the way to Taiwan to spend a week with a Christian Women’s club teaching them about the work of the Holy Spirit? It just did not seem to be in the flow of God’s call upon me to advance the Kingdom of God. But with these doubts plaguing me, I went anyway. And of course, consistent with our core PRMI approach, went with a team.
The Rev. Cindy Strickler and Dr. Jidong Shan shared with Rev. John Chang and me in the teaching. We were joined by Mary Ellen Conners and Eddie Lee who provided the intercessory prayer support. Mary Ellen would also be teaching on intercessory prayer. There was almost no prayer support on site in Taiwan as this was a new group for us, but we were walking in faith and obedience through what looked like an open door.
We really did not know what we were getting into! We had been told that there were number of the ladies who actually did not speak Chinese, only English. So this would need to be a completely bi-lingual event.
When we arrived we were in for some major very happy surprises! As we walked into their spacious meeting rooms in downtown Taipei we saw walls decorated with incredible art in Chinese and western style done by the women themselves.
It turns out that this woman’s fellowship had been founded over 40 years ago by Reformed Church in America women missionaries, with ladies from both the international and Taiwan business, Foreign Service, and government communities. In the preliminary welcome feast they gave us I was impressed to find that these Christian women from many different denominations were in positions of very significant leadership in Taiwan. Later in the event when they showed me the older name of the group, the Taipei Christian Woman’s Club, with a shock I realized that my mother had been a member of this group when my parents had lived in Taiwan in the 1970’s. Suddenly I had the intense awareness that I and the team were stepping into the river of the Holy Spirit working through this group of women to accomplish something for His Kingdom. But what was it?
As we started teaching basically through the Gateways equipping on how to be filled with the Holy Spirit the reason why we were there became clear. This group of influential women are in positions of leadership to not only take part in advancing the Kingdom of God in Taiwan but all over Asia and into China. When Cindy and John were telling the leadership team about the open door to advance the Gospel in Japan, the leaders said, “We all speak Japanese and we have a burden for Japan.” Another time we were sharing the vision of equipping leaders in China. Once again they were ahead of us. One of the leaders shared how she had been in China providing teaching. They have a heart for China as well as open doors. Just amazing!! God was making connections for the big picture advancement of the Kingdom of God in Asia.
We proceeded to teach and the Holy Spirit moved. Many were filled with the Holy Spirit and they told us that they had never had teaching like this that was systematic, was so biblical, and led them into actually cooperating with the Holy Spirit instead of just having experiences of the Holy Spirit. This was really affirming for the team to hear! But the real reason we were there was to take part in God’s equipping and bringing into anointed leadership a team of very gifted women who can carry on the work of growing the Christian Women’s Corps long after we have left Taiwan.
In the next article I want to summarize some of the principles that we found helpful for nurturing an anointed leadership team and taking part in Jesus work of anointing others for leadership. What we experienced is applicable not just for a women’s group in Taiwan but also in your local congregation and anywhere that Jesus is raising up leaders to grow the Church and advance the Kingdom of God.
